spare us the phoney poppy apoplexy (guardian article- remembrance day)

At the time of writing 15 Premier League clubs have applied for special dispensation to embroider a poppy on their shirts for games between now and Remembrance Sunday, while – far more thrillingly for the Mail – five clubs have not.

At base, this is just another way of presenting footballers as cosseted ingrates.

With a tedious inevitability, the Daily Mail's campaign to divide the whole of Britain into people who wear poppies and people who are subhuman scumbags has reached the Premier League.

After all, isn't frothing yourself into demented indignation at the Blackburn squad's lack of a poppy the very definition of having way too much time to indulge in fatuous rows?

After all, isn't frothing yourself into demented indignation at the Blackburn squad's lack of a poppy the very definition of having way too much time to indulge in fatuous rows?

It's redolent of that long-running, now mercifully expired argument about footballers not singing the national anthem in a manner acceptable to whichever Middle Englander wasn't really watching the game anyway.

They are Blackburn, Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Stoke, and while some have declined to explain their decision, a Manchester United spokesman has stated: "We don't think it's particularly necessary.

Having pointed out that the X Factor contestants were wearing them – as though that were the most meaningful comparison – Ferrari solicited his listeners to phone in and have their say on Strictly's act of near-treason.

With a tedious inevitability, the Daily Mail's campaign to divide the whole of Britain into people who wear poppies and people who are subhuman scumbags has reached the Premier League.

He appeared to be under the delusion that fanning a non-argument somehow proved his point, as opposed to being disrespectful in itself.